video memory? have now? amt needed for Blu-ray and bigger monitor?

demonikal

demonikal

New Member
I have onboard video memory. Specifically I have what I think is called ATI Radeon HD 3300 Graphics. Not sure if that's what I should look for, but that's what it says in Device Manager under Display Adapters. Tried doing a search online, but couldn't figure it out. Went into BIOS and couldn't find onboard video memory anywhere. This is for Windows 7 Pro x64. Didn't come with the computer. Was a barebone kit and I bought and installed Windows 7 separate.

But I want to find out how much video memory I have so I know how much I should get. My ASUS mobo has Hybrid Crossfire Video Card capabilities. I was thinking about getting a Blu-Ray internal player and I have a 22" Acer Widescreen LCD monitor now and wanted to upgrade to a 42" something either LCD or LED. I don't want the viewable screen with blocks of images rather than the images themselves. I'm not much of a gamer though. But I do have 16 GB of DDR3 memory, so I don't see the harm in getting two decent crossfire video cards. I just know nothing, absolutely nothing about what to do, get, etc.

Sorry for the long message and thanks.
 
Not sure what you're asking really. The size ("s) of a monitor doesn't matter, it's the resolution, my 65" runs 1080p, and there are 23" monitors that run 1080p, which is the name for the resolution 1920x1080, meaning both of those screens have 1920 pixels or little lights/colors across and 1080 of them going up and down. As for the memory, your integrated graphics run off of the RAM you have currently, and if you were to buy a graphics card the integrated graphics you currently use will be disabled and irrelevant. And for going crossfire, that would be pointless for what you are saying other than using 4+ monitors, as a 120 dollar HD5770/6770 can run 3 monitors at once. What is your current power supply? a bad one with any real graphics card can end up blowing and taking other parts with it.
 
Thanks voyagerfan. Wow, that does look pretty bad. It's not that I know zero, like nothing at all. I'm more familiar with older BIOS systems like with Windows XP machines. I know BIOS is built into the mobo, so if you have no OS, it doesn't really matter, so I guess I made myself out to be a lot less knowledgeable. But I guess I messed up writing that I need to know the onboard video memory so I know what I need to get. Obviously, that wouldn't make a difference, cuz correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd have to disable onboard video memory in the BIOS somehow in order to take advantage of graphics cards in the PCIe x16 slots. I'm pretty sure you can't just combine onboard memory with graphics cards, but not totally sure.
 
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jonnyp11 said:
Not sure what you're asking really. The size ("s) of a monitor doesn't matter, it's the resolution, my 65" runs 1080p, and there are 23" monitors that run 1080p, which is the name for the resolution 1920x1080, meaning both of those screens have 1920 pixels or little lights/colors across and 1080 of them going up and down. As for the memory, your integrated graphics run off of the RAM you have currently, and if you were to buy a graphics card the integrated graphics you currently use will be disabled and irrelevant. And for going crossfire, that would be pointless for what you are saying other than using 4+ monitors, as a 120 dollar HD5770/6770 can run 3 monitors at once. What is your current power supply? a bad one with any real graphics card can end up blowing and taking other parts with it.
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Sorry if I came off sounding like a total invalid, all sarcasm aside. My 22" Acer LCD resolution is 1680x1050. That's the highest it will go, but that's the resolution I've always ran it at and had no problems. My PSU is an Ultra LSP 550W Pro. So yeah, 550 watts.
 
You don't HAVE to disable it in the BIOS when you stick a card in. The machine will automatically use the card.
 
demonikal said:
Sorry if I came off sounding like a total invalid, all sarcasm aside. My 22" Acer LCD resolution is 1680x1050. That's the highest it will go, but that's the resolution I've always ran it at and had no problems. My PSU is an Ultra LSP 550W Pro. So yeah, 550 watts.
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I don't think that psu is too good, but as long as you aren't trying to run a power hungry monster on it you should be okay for now.
 
voyagerfan99 said:
Well if that is truly your integrated chipset, it ranks quite low.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+3300

You'd want to get at least an HD 4870 (which you can come around pretty cheap) and you'll get good Blu-ray playback with that.
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voyagerfan99, I couldn't find the HD 4870 on Newegg or Tigerdirect, but I did find the Radeon HD 5670. I can afford more than $90. I'd be willing to spend give a little around $150 for a video card. Plus, the HD 5670 is PCIe 2.1 and I only have PCIe 2.0 slots, two x16 slots, two x1 slots, and two regular PCI slots. That's what I got, but I really don't know where to go from here. I just know what I told you I'm willing to spend give a little more maybe, but 512MB - 1GB of needed memory for a video card? With 16GB of DDR3 RAM, I think I can spare a little more than that, but just not sure what to get.
 
all the pci-e's are interchangeable, the only difference is how much info can pass through at once, but pci-e 1 works in 2 or 2.1, and the other way around.
 
demonikal said:
voyagerfan99, I couldn't find the HD 4870 on Newegg or Tigerdirect, but I did find the Radeon HD 5670. I can afford more than $90. I'd be willing to spend give a little around $150 for a video card. Plus, the HD 5670 is PCIe 2.1 and I only have PCIe 2.0 slots, two x16 slots, two x1 slots, and two regular PCI slots. That's what I got, but I really don't know where to go from here. I just know what I told you I'm willing to spend give a little more maybe, but 512MB - 1GB of needed memory for a video card? With 16GB of DDR3 RAM, I think I can spare a little more than that, but just not sure what to get.
Click to expand...

That's because it's an older card ;) Yeah if you wana spend more money the 5870 will be perfectly fine.
 
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